Ice ejector tray and bucket



March 5, 1968 R- .1. BUNNELL 3,371,905

ICE EJECTOR TRAY AND BUCKET Filed Dec. 6, 1965 INVENTOR. Ro/cmd J.Bunnel/ Z/LZA. gala-4 His Afforney United States Patent Ofifice3,371,905 Patented Mar. 5, 1968 3,371,905 ICE EJECTOR TRAY AND BUCKETRoland J. Bunnell, Durham, N.C., assignor to General Motors Corporation,Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 6, 1965, Ser. No.511,904 7 Claims. (Cl. 249-69) This invention relates to a storagebucket or collecting receptacle provided with a camming arrangementcoopcrating with the movable grid of an inverted tray or mold to ejectfrozen cubes into the bucket or collecting receptacle.

A number of arrangements such as for example are shown in Patents2,899,804, issued Aug. 18, 1959 and 2,916,895, issued Dec. 15, 1959,have been devised for ejecting frozen cubes from an inverted tray ormold directly into the storage bucket. Since the use of the patternedmetal tray such as is illustrated in Patent 3,033,008, issued May 8, 1962, has permitted the use of much thinner aluminum for these trays ormolds to obtain quicker freezing, there is concern whether the trays arestrong enough to be used as a lever as illustrated in Patents 2,899,804and 2,916,895. Although these arrangements are of modest cost, theintensive prior competition has kept them from being made standard in alow priced refrigerator.

It is an object of this invention to provide a very simple effectiveinexpensive arrangement of an inverted tray or mold and a bucket with asimple means for ejecting the frozen cubes into the bucket which willlimit the stress upon the tray or mold.

It is another object of this invention to provide a very simpleeffective inexpensive camming arrangement effective upon a directdownward movement of the adjacent end of an inverted tray or moldrelative to a storage bucket which will move a movable grid within thetray or mold to eject frozen cubes from the tray or mold into thestorage bucket.

These and other objects are attained in the forms shown in the drawingin which the tray or mold is provided with a hook shaped bracket or rimportion at one end adapted to hook when inverted upon the adjacent endof an ice bucket or collecting receptacle. The movable grid within thetray or mold has a longitudinally movable actuating bar provided at theopposite end of the tray or mold with a pair of nylon rollers rotatablymounted thereon by a suitable rivet. The rollers engage a cooperatingactuating cam surface within the bucket so that when the adjacent end ofthe tray or bucket is pressed downwardly, the engagement of the rollerswith the cam surfaces causes a longitudinal movement of the longitudinalbar to break loose the ice cubes formed within the tray and causes theice cubes to be released into the bucket. In a second form of theinvention the angularity of the cam surface is made manually adjustableand cooperates with a pair of nylon buttons upon the first transversepartition wall of the grid to cause the reaction between the buttons andthe cam surface to cause pivoting movement of the first wall and alateral movement of the longitudinal bar away from the cam surface tofree the ice cubes within the grid and causing them to be dischargedonto the bottom of the bucket.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings wherein preferred embodiments of the present invention areclearly shown.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a vertical sectional view through an inverted tray or moldupon a bucket disclosing my invention and particularly showing the trayor mold in its starting position;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to FIGURE 1 showing thesecond position at the completion of the operation of pressing down uponthe tray or mold as indicated by the arrow in FIGURE, 1; and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating a modified form ofthe invention.

Referring now more particularly to FIGURE 1, there is illustrated an icereceiving and ice storage bucket or collecting receptacle 20 of suitablehigh strength plastic or metal which is rectangular in shape with theends 22 and 24 being shown in section. According to my invention, aninverted ice tray 26 is inverted over the bucket 20 and has riveted toone end thereof, a U-shaped metal channel 28 which is riveted to theflange 29 of the tray 26. The U-shaped channel 28 when hooked over theend wall 24 as illustrated, eifectively limits the longitudinal movementof the tray 26 but permits upward and downward movement of this tray ormold. The tray or mold 26 is preferably of patterned aluminum asillustrated in Patent 3,033,008, issued May 8, 1962, which may be verythin and flexible. The interior of the tray or mold 26 is provided witha longitudinal partition wall 32 having projections 31 and 33 extendingthrough slots in the adjacent ends of the tray or mold 26 and transversepartition walls 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42. These transverse partition wallshave vertical slots receiving the longitudinal partition wall 30 as wellas the notched longitudinal actuating bar 44. This longitudinalactuating bar 44 moves longitudinally relative to the longitudinalpartition wall 32 to pivot the transverse partition walls 34-42 to avertical position as illustrated in FIGURE 2 to dislodge frozen cubesfrom the tray 26. The projection 33 is held in place by a transversespring extending between it and the flange 29. The tray and grid orpartition walls and actuating bar may be like those illustrated inPatent 2,874,553, issued Feb. 24, 1959 and are normally held in theposition shown in FIGURE 1 by the spring 43 and the bent projection 41engaged by the wall 30.

According to my invention, for the purpose of providing a simpleinexpensive effective arrangement for moving the longitudinal bar toaccomplish the release of the frozen cubes 46 from the tray or mold 26,I rivet and rotatably mount to the left end of the notched bar 44, apair of nylon rollers 48. In the starting position these nylon rollers48 are located adjacent the end flange 50 of the tray or mold 26. Whenthe tray 26 is inverted with the channel member hooked over the oppositeend of the bucket 20, the nylon rollers engage a cam or inclined plane52 of plastic or metal which is fixed against the bottom and end wall ofthe bucket 20. The surface of the cam or inclined plane 52 may be at anangle of about 40 to 70 from the horizontal plane. When the tray 26 ispressed downwardly as indicated by the arrow 54 in FIGURE 1 thelongitudinal bar 44 is cammed laterally to the right in consequence ofthe reaction of the down- Ward force of the rollers 48 with the surfacesof the cam 52. The movement of the bar 44 to the right causes theadjacent portions of the transverse partition walls 34-42 to be pivotedsubstantially to a vertical position relative to the bottom of the trayas illustrated in FIGURE 2. At the beginning of this movement the frozenice cubes 46 are broken loose from the tray 26 and the partition Walls32 and 42 inclusive, as illustrated in FIGURE 2 and fall by gravity tothe bottom of the bucket or receptacle 20. After this, the tray 26 maybe turned right side up and filled with water or other liquid to befrozen and placed in the refrigerator for freezing a second batch of icecubes.

In FIGURE 3 a modified form of the invention is applied to the tray ormold 26. In this form the longitudinal bar 64 is cut off at the leftend. Instead of providing a nylon roller upon the longitudinal bar,there is applied to the first transverse partition wall 66 a pair oflarge headed nylon rivets 68 which when the tray 26 has the channel 28hooked over the opposite end of the bucket or receptacle 20 and moveddownwardly will be guided to engage the surface of the cam 70 which ispivoted upon the pin 72 to an irregular block 74 fastened by the screws76 to the "adjacent end wall 22 0f the bucket 20. The angularity of thecam surface 71 of the cam 70 is adjusted by the set screw 78 which isthreaded through the block 74 into engagement with the rear face of thepivoted cam member 70.

Upon their downward movement the engagement of the pair of nylon rivetheads 68 with the cam surface 71 cams the adjacent portion of thetransverse wall 66 and the longitudinal bar 64 to the right to dislodgethe frozen ice cubes from the spaces between the partition walls and thetray 26. The remainder of tray 26 and the remaining partition walls aswell as the remaining portion of -the longitudinal bar 64 are preferablylike those as shown in FIGURES 1 and 2. It will therefore be observedthat I have provided a simple inexpensive camming arrangement foractuating the grid member of an ice tray or mold which limits the amountof force and consequent distortion which can be applied to the tray toeffect the disengagement of the cubes.

While the embodiments of the present invention as herein disclosed,constitute preferred forms, it is to be understood that other formsmight be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A frozen liquid ejecting assembly including a long mold for frozenliquid and a long collecting receptacle for receiving in invertedposition said mold, said collecting receptacle and inverted mold havinginterengaging means adjacent one end for supporting said end of saidmold upon said receptacle, the opposite end of said collectingreceptacle being constructed to extend outside the path of any downwardmovement of said mold, said mold being provided with a movable grid, andinterengaging cam and cam follower means between said mold and saidreceptacle for moving said movable grid to release frozen liquid fromsaid mold for delivery into said receptacle.

2. A frozen liquid ejecting assembly as defined in claim 1 in which thegrid has a movable longitudinal bar provided with a cam follower and thereceptacle has a cam cooperating with said follower to move said bar.

3. A frozen liquid ejecting assembly as defined in claim 1 in Which themovable grid has a transverse partition wall and the cam and camfollower means comprises an element operably connected to saidtransverse partition wall and an element connected to said receptacle.

4. A frozen liquid ejecting assembly as defined in claim 1 in which thecam and cam follower means comprises a roller follower which rolls uponthe surface of the cam.

5. A frozen liquid ejecting assembly as defined in claim 1 in which themovable grid has a movable longitudinal bar and the receptacle isprovided with the cam, said bar being provided with a roller followerwhich rolls upon the surface of the cam.

6. A frozen liquid ejecting assembly as defined in claim 1 in which thecam and cam follower means comprises a means for adjusting the angle ofinclination of the cam.

7. A frozen liquid ejecting assembly as defined in claim 1 in which thecam and cam follower means comp-rises a pivoted cam and an adjustingscrew for engaging and holding said cam in various selective angles ofinclination.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,201,586 5/1940 Keiper 249-73 X2,286,080 6/1942 Geyer 249-73 2,867,995 1/1959 Weinrich ct a1. 249-692,874,553 2/1959 Sharpe et a1 249-72 3,147,603 9/ 1964- Kniffin 2497l XJ. HOWARD FLINT, JR., Primary Examiner.

1. A FROZEN LIQUID EJECTING ASSEMBLY INCLUDING A LONG MOLD FOR FROZENLIQUID AND A LONG COLLECTING RECEPTACLE FOR RECEIVING IN VERTED POSITIONSAID MOLD, SAID COLLECTING RECEPTACLE AND INVERTED MOLD HAVINGINTERENGAGING MEANS ADJACENT ONE END FOR SUPPORTING SAID END OF SAIDMOLD UPON SAID RECEPTACLE, THE OPPOSITE END OF SAID COLLECTINGRECEPTACLE BEING CONSTRUCTED TO EXTEND OUTSIDE THE PATH OF ANY DOWNWARDMOVEMENT OF SAID MOLD, SAID MOLD BEING PROVIDED WITH A MOVABLE GRID, ANDINTERENGAGING CAM AND CAM FOLLOWER MEANS BETWEEN SAID MOLD AND SAIDRECEPTACLE FOR MOVING SAID MOVABLE GRID TO RELEASE FROZEN LIQUID FROMSAID MOLD FOR DELIVERY INTO SAID RECEPTACLE.